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Parliament gives preliminary o.k. to Netanyahu to run

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December 14, 2000 

JERUSALEM-- (UNB/AP) - Parliament gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a bill that would permit former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu - the current front-runner in opinion polls - to run in February's election for prime minister.

Netanyahu is a hard-liner who says Prime Minister Ehud Barak has compromised Israel's security in his quest for a peace agreement with the Palestinians. However, in the coming special election for prime minister, only sitting members of parliament are eligible to run.

Netanyahu gave up his parliamentary seat and withdrew from active politics after he was defeated by Barak in May 1999 for the prime minister's post.

But Israel's parliament, the Knesset, voted 67-35 in favor of a bill that would allow any citizen to run for the prime minister's job in a special election. The proposed bill must still go to a parliamentary committee and then faces several more votes in parliament before it will become law.

The process would normally take weeks or even months, but Netanyahu's supporters were trying to push it through the legislature in a matter of days. They appeared to have votes to spare on Wednesday, though opponents may try to delay the law's passage or change their vote in coming days.

Barak, who says he's not afraid of running against Netanyahu, is also a member of parliament and he voted in favor of the law that would allow his rival to enter the race.

Barak triggered the special election when he resigned Sunday, though he remains in office until the ballot, and is running for re-election.

Meanwhile, five Palestinians were killed Wednesday, four of them policemen who died in a protracted gun battle in Khan Yunis, in the Gaza Strip.

Barak has been unable to quell Israeli-Palestinian fighting that has claimed more than 300 lives, the vast majority Palestinians, since erupting at the end of September.

The prime minister was elected last year on a peace agenda, but negotiations on a final peace treaty broke down after a Mideast summit in July.

Increasingly seen as ineffective, Barak's popularity has plummeted. In one poll published last week, Netanyahu led by 46 percent to Barak's 29 percent. Other polls have produced similar results.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, says that Barak has endangered Israel's security in his search for a peace deal. Netanyahu says he would place greater emphasis on security, and would not go nearly as far as Barak has in negotiations with the Palestinians.

During Netanyahu's three years in power from 1996-99, he was in regular confrontation with the Palestinians, and the two sides never made substantial progress toward a comprehensive political settlement.

Netanyahu, who has spent much of the past 19 months lecturing in the United States, returned to Israel on Sunday and announced his intention to run for the prime minister's job only hours after Barak resigned.

However, he has not yet secured the nomination to run from his right-wing Likud party.

Likud primaries are scheduled for next week, and Netanyahu is favored to get the nod if he's eligible to run, though party leader Ariel Sharon has said he too would be seeking the nomination.

Netanyahu was given a roaring welcome by more than 2,000 activists of his Likud party in a Tel Aviv convention center Tuesday night. Supporters jumped to their feet and chanted, "Bibi, Bibi," the nickname by which he is universally known in Israel.